I'm considering buying a copy of the RTS classic Total Annihilation, and I was wondering: What do I need to buy to get "the full experience"? Just The Core Contingency, or do I need the game and its two expansions to play?

CC added some interesting new units, but as I recall, they were game-breaking-ly powerful. Especially the full-auto mega turret thing. If you could keep that powered, you were unstoppable. Fun though!
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UltimateBrentAug 18 '11 at 23:41

You are talking about the "Rapid fire plasma cannon" Buzzsaw and Vulcan. In fact if you knew it's location you could easily bomb that to oblivion with aircrafts or nukes.
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Adam AroldJul 25 '12 at 16:08

If you want to play with mods, install a better AI or install community-released bug-fix patches, you better get it with the Core Contingency expansion, as most mods and game patches require it or will work much better with it. Battle Tactics is more or less optional as it is mostly just new campaign and skirmish maps, anyway.

And if you're gonna buy it, better buy the GOG.com version as it is setup to be fully-patched (CD check removed and modified to play music without CD, among other fixes) and readily used on Modern OSes.

For multiplayer, all you need is TA itself (as well as the IP address of the person / party who is hosting the game), but you can organize games over instant messaging programs, like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ, or Windows Live Messenger (MSN). However, if you'd rather play or organize games with the help of a specific gaming client or site, check out

Extra Cavedog maps: All the extra maps Cavedog released after the expansions packed into 1 file.

TA Demo Recorder (99b2): The latest version of the TA Demo Recorder, adding several functions to TA, like shared LOS for allies, cheat detection, and game recording so you can watch replays again later.

My definition of "the full experience" includes an active multiplayer community. I could be wrong, but I think the free remake, TAspring, has more people playing it right now.
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JamesGeckoJul 9 '10 at 2:24

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@james: i've looked at TA spring, and while it looks cool, the comunity was just a "little" too hardcore for me.
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RCIXJul 9 '10 at 6:43